Vista - Suddenly Can't Print .. no clue why

So I've got a problem I just don't know how to resolve or further debug.

I've got a Thinkpad Laptop running Vista x64 Ultimate. I reinstalled the OS ~3 weeks ago and installed my print drivers. I have 2 network printers and I also use doPDF to create PDFs. All of these were working just fine.

Today they are not printing correctly, but not in a way I can figure out. Applications give me an error saying there is an unknown error or that there is no default printer installed. This happens in Firefox, OpenOffice, Acrobat, Thunderbird and others.

The weird thing is that if I goto control panel and try to print a test page with any of the printers it works fine. In addition, I can print txt files from both Notepad & Wordpad, but still not from Openoffice.

So why is it I can print simple txt files & test pages but not from the apps I need to print from. BTW this happens for all the printers I have installed including the 2 network printers, the local PDf printer (doPDF), & the XPS printer. These all worked last time I printed (a few days ago), but not today.

What can I do to ideally fix this or at least better debg this?

Thanx

Anyone with ideas?

Did System Restore not work?
--
Cari (MS-MVP)
Windows Technologies - Printing & Imaging
http://www.coribright.com/windows


"Snuffy2" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:dbd38f8fc991773413958219bbea3938@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

A good first step is to open Control Panel and uninstall the printer that is
not working. Reboot and let Windows discover the 'new' printer and install
the drivers for it. Often that works
A good second step is to use System Restore and restore to the most recent
date the printer did work.

"Snuffy2" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:dbd38f8fc991773413958219bbea3938@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

System restore and uninstalling and reinstalling the printers have not worked.

Anything else? I really would like to print again.

Do the printer(s) have ink in them?

Do they appear to be installed correctly?
--
Cari (MS-MVP)
Windows Technologies - Printing & Imaging
http://www.coribright.com/windows


"Snuffy2" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:c7cce3b4f350da47b780a95f2f27f1cf@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Printers work fine and all other PCs in the house can print to them fine. They are both network printers. I also cannot print to the built in PDF and XPS printers either with the same error.

I can print simple txt docs from Notepad & Wordpad and test pages from within control panel from this PC but cant print real docs from any app.

Aha.... then it's what we refer to as an application error, since you CAN
print from Notepad and Wordpad. I'd suggest reinstalling the application in
question... BTW what app is it?
--
Cari (MS-MVP)
Windows Technologies - Printing & Imaging
http://www.coribright.com/windows


"Snuffy2" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:8f471f3ec33589fdec0d48910bfe3a96@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

It's Every other app! Acrobat, OpenOffice, Microsoft Office, Firefox, Thunderbird, IE, everything else. I have tried reinstalling a few of these apps but no success.

I can only print test pages from the control panel for the printer and simple txt files from within wordpad & notepad. No other app will print.

I resolved a problem like this on my PC today... I had reset my wireless router due to a problem connecting to the Internt, and my network-connected HP printer stopped working. I went to Control Panel Printer window, right-clicked and brought up the Server Properties of the printer. Under the Ports tab, I could see the IP address that the spooler was configured to use. I then selected "Add a printer" to add a Network Printer. In this way, I discovered that my router had assigned a different address to my printer after the reset. So, I went back to the Ports property page and selected the correct address for it (using a checkbox on the left and clicking Apply). That fixed the problem.